


Never Easy

by Transistors



Series: Sweet, Silent Love [1]
Category: Twin Peaks
Genre: Canon Compliant, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-23
Updated: 2018-03-23
Packaged: 2019-04-07 03:34:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14072010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Transistors/pseuds/Transistors
Summary: Things are never easy, in sleepy little Twin Peaks - feeling so far away from the rest of the world. Harry reminds himself of that constantly, but agent Cooper does his damned best to make it seem like everything is as easy as breathing.





	Never Easy

**Author's Note:**

> I've been watching Twin Peaks with my friend and I had to write a fic after getting to episode 9 of season 2, and I am just sitting here like "I have a lot of emotions and I don't know how to feel anymore."
> 
> Anyway, have Dale and Harry having their first kiss together where Harry thinks. And Cooper is Cooper. I love Dale and Harry.

There is a lot about agent Cooper that Harry doesn’t necessarily… get. The too-wide smiles he gives as he gets closer and closer to solving something, the little ways his hands press against one another with indexes straight up and tapping against his chin. The too-clean way he holds himself, looking like he has never had a stressful day in his life – despite Harry knowing better, with the way circles gather around heavy like baggage under Cooper’s eyes.

But the man sure is _magnetic –_ just like Twin Peaks, Harry thinks while he cleans out his gun. His fingers roll the cylinder, listening to the satisfying noise it makes, while he lets himself drift off into thought. Alone in his office, it is far too easy to just think – and think and think. Overthinking is Cooper’s thing, Harry reminds himself with the slightest of smiles. Nothing wide like agent Cooper’s; that man had pearly whites that blinds even the sunniest of personalities, and Harry chuckles.

Indescribably attractive. Just like a magnet. He thinks about Cooper’s lips far too often; at the way they thin out when he is bothered, making him seem even more impatient than he really is, or when they pull back wide, giving him dimples with his frankly infectious grin. He doesn’t remember the last time someone has made him smile so often and so easily just because of their own extreme enthusiasm; he prides himself, sometimes, in being able to stay level-headed. Something he has had to learn with his duty as a sheriff, after all.

Nothing is ever easy in Twin Peaks. Not even feelings; his cleaning of the already spotless-as-can-be gun comes to an end, the drawer is pulled out softly and noisily, and the gun is placed without even a thunk to follow the sound. His thumb rests against the table as the drawer is pushed in, fingers still curled at the bottom, and Harry inhales in through his nose and exhales slowly through his mouth in a long, drawn-out sigh. Nothing is ever, _ever_ easy in sleepy little Twin Peaks, far away from the rest of the world, and Harry’s grip eventually grows slack, arm falling limp next to him, his other hand coming to curl up on his belly.

His mind wanders, briefly, to the case that he is working on with agent Cooper – it always circles back to agent Cooper, doesn’t it? With his infectious enthusiasm, and his firm sense of law – and wonders what will become of the town once the killer is found. Resolution? Perhaps not. Doubt gnaws at the back of his mind, a niggling sensation that won’t stop to remind him that maybe there is no such thing as a satisfaction of a criminal catch.

Perhaps he thinks too much. Perhaps agent Cooper has rubbed off on him too much. His jolts when Lucy’s voice rings out, high-pitched and taking her time to tell him that agent Cooper wants in, and Harry can’t help the smile that spreads on his face. “Let him in, Lucy.” He interrupts midsentence and it takes two minutes – where it should, really, take only less than that – for Cooper to wander on inside of his office, coat on and the same, infectious grin on his face.

He watches the way his shoulders raise and push back to shrug his beige coat off, arms slipping out of the long sleeves to reveal himself in his usual black get-up, buttoned up and prim – pretty, the word ignored in favour of listening to the soft whump of the chair as Cooper takes a seat and smacks his hands down onto his knees, bending forward to look at Harry with an almost conspiratorial gaze. “Harry,” Cooper says, tone an almost polite whisper as though they are in a theatre, and he raises an eyebrow, “I had a dream last night, Harry. Couldn’t forget it, recorded it for Diane to later deconstruct and give me her opinions, and of course-“

“You’re going to share it with me.” Harry says, finishing the sentence for him with an amused smile stretching out on his lips. “Was it Tibet this time?” he prompts and Cooper lets out a short chuckle, hands clapping together before back down onto his knees, legs spread and elbows bending outwards as the agent makes himself comfortable.

“Right on the money, Harry. Right on the money! I dreamt of Tibet again, of the happy generation – you have heard of it, right? They had reached a sort of enlightenment that we could only dream of reaching, Harry. You ever wondered what it must be like to be known as the happy generation?”

He shakes his head. “Could only dream of it, agent Cooper.” At the rather formal words, agent Cooper gives him an exasperated look as he shakes his head, a smile quick to return on his face and Harry’s chest tightens.

“Harry, please, we’re not working right now, you should call me Dale – though, of course, my reason for barging into your very cozily packed office-“

“It’s not that packed, agent.”

“- was because I had come to another realisation of the case, a small one; but for now, my _dream,_ Harry. My dream! It felt almost… like I was in the very, physical interpretation of summer. Everything was so sweet, I woke up with a toothache so bad I almost considered going to the dentist here.”

Harry’s brow furrows, his own smile widening while he nods to try and show his exasperation. “I don’t think we got the best dentist here for those pearls you got there, agent.”

“I’m sure they’ll do fine.” Cooper waves him off. “Actually, I can’t seem to recall what I am trying to tell you, Harry. My mind’s gone blank, a piece of paper that I can’t seem to quite fill in this time.” He frowns at that, palms lifting up to instead press against each other, angling downwards in a sort of upside-down triangle, and Harry’s lips settle into a relaxed line.

He taps his table once, twice with his knuckles before he lets his fingers splay out on top of the mess that is his desk. A few more taps with his index and middle, then he is pushing his chair back and standing, catching Cooper’s attention. “Let’s get you some coffee.” Harry suggests, and it is almost as if he has said the magic words with how Cooper’s entire face seems to light up at the mention. “My treat. C’mon, let’s go, agent.”

“What do I have to do to get you to call me Dale outside of work hours, sheriff?” Cooper says, asking no one in particular really with how he doesn’t seem to be looking at Harry. He doesn’t press it and, instead, opens the door to his office instead and waits for Cooper to leave first. His coat is picked up, left to hang from his right arm, and he takes small strides towards where Harry is and then stops right in front of him.

He watches him peek out, catching the left and right hallways, and Harry lifts up an eyebrow and opens his mouth, barely, to ask something… before he feels something press against his marginally parted lips. It is so chaste – so sweet and quick, unlike the heated kisses he used to have with Josie, that Harry almost misses it when he feels that ever-grinning mouth press against him.

It takes some willpower to stop himself from chasing after Cooper to kiss him again, to actually feel his lips proper without having to focus, and all he can do is stare at him – dumbfounded. “I always caught you staring at my mouth, Harry.” Cooper says conversationally, eyes gazing straight into Harry’s, strong-willed and unashamed, and he can’t say anything in response. “You are not as subtle as you think you are, my friend.”

His lips part, mouth becoming dry at the prospect of talking, and he chokes on his own saliva and has to cough for a bit to catch himself again. He is sure he looks absolutely silly before the smiling agent like this, eyes wide and voice unable to form words. “Agent?” Harry asks, and Cooper looks at him with a confidence that he can’t tell is faked, or genuine.

“Was what I did alright with you, Harry?” Cooper asks. “All things considering, I should have asked first, but what is done is done, and all I can do is apologise and, once again ask… was what I did, alright?”

It takes a few seconds before Harry nods, words still unable to force themselves out of his throat. Cooper’s smile grows, becoming kind and welcoming instead of the usual eager excitement. He shifts his coat around and then reaches up with his left hand to cup Harry’s cheek, thumb pressing over his bottom lip, and he breathes in sharply. “Coffee?” Cooper asks. “I’m feeling awfully tired, and I would love to tell you-“

“Of course, agent.” Harry manages out in the middle of his sentence, interrupting him rather rudely, not that Cooper seems to mind. He nods and steps out of the office, giving Harry the room he needs to exhale heavily and try and comprehend what has even _happened._ His mouth feels like it is tingling, face feeling burning hot though he glances over at some of the room windows to see no blush at all. “Coffee. My treat.”

“You really should start calling me Dale.” He insists, before he begins talking as they start to walk side by side, Harry tuning in and out of the conversation with Cooper given that he… doesn’t really have much of an input to give. His mind drifts off to the kiss, to how easily Cooper has given it to him without even being _bothered_ that they are both men, to how he… _he liked it._

His heart twists up, stomach coiling, and his mouth still tingles from the kiss. His mind is a mess, running a mile a minute, yet he finds it easier to concentrate on the now as Cooper hands him a mug of coffee, the coat draped over onto a chair, while he starts to sip from his own.

Nothing is ever easy with Twin Peaks, Harry reminds himself, tongue burning from the first too-big sip of the coffee, and he watches Cooper emote and speak with a grace that he, himself, can’t muster up right now. Nothing is ever easy, but agent Cooper sure as hell makes it seem it. So when Cooper is about to leave, calling out to Harry to join him, he gives him an unfamiliar feeling coy smile and says, “sure, Dale. Lemme get my jacket.”

And the smile he gets is infectiously sweet.

**Author's Note:**

> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/starrelia) | [Tumblr](https://masculinedevil.tumblr.com)


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